A CNN host on Monday insisted there is a 'direct' connection between President Trump’s rhetoric on the migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. southern border, and the murder of 11 Jews at a synagogue in Pittsburgh over the weekend.
“You can draw a direct line from all of the vitriol and hate rhetoric about the caravan that’s some 2,000 miles away from our border and the gunman in Pittsburgh, who referenced that, and somehow turned it into an attack on Jews,” host Alisyn Camerota said.
CNN analyst David Gregory said that while people should not be too quick to blame Trump or other political leaders for the attack, he agreed with Camerota that there is a relationship between Trump’s words against immigrants and the shooter’s motivation.
“There’s no question that the president who has waged rhetorical war — and worse, when you talk about family separations on immigrants and suggesting that they’re vermin and infesting they’re country — you cannot ignore how that can be heard by people who hate immigrants, who are afraid of anyone who they think is going to change their way of life, and who hates Jews,” Gregory said.
[Eric Trump: Pittsburgh synagogue shooter doesn't 'represent the Right']
Eleven people were killed and six wounded in a massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa., during Shabbat services Saturday morning.
The shooter, 48-year-old Robert Bowers, yelled “All Jews must die” several times when he opened fire, and made anti-Semitic posts on social media before the shooting. But he also criticized Trump.
"Trump is a globalist, not a nationalist," Bowers said two days before the shooting on social media. "There is no #MAGA as long as there is a k*** infestation.
While being taken into custody, the shooter told police that the Jews were “committing a genocide on his people.”